Home Minister calls meet on Citizenship Amendment Bill

New Delhi, November 28 (IANS) Union Home Minister Amit Shah has called a meeting on Friday to discuss with the civil society and political parties the proposed draft Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which has been a bone of contention with the opposition parties and some northeastern states.

The invite sent to various organisations says, "consultation meeting on the proposed citizenship amendment bill chaired by Hon'ble Union Home Minister in New Delhi".

The meeting is likely to be attended by all the political parties of the northeastern states and civil society groups. However, it's not clear whether mainstream political parties have been invited or not.

The CAB intends to make it easier for the non-Muslim immigrants from India's three Muslim-majority neighbours -- Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become citizens of India. Though the Bill doesn't spell it out clearly, but the fact is it entitles the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, facing religious persecution in the three nations, to seek Indian citizenship and highlights the exclusion of Muslims.

This amendment is to The Citizenship Act, 1955 which requires the applicant to have resided in India for 11 of the previous 14 years. The amendment seeks to relax this requirement from 11 years to 6 years for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the three nations.

But the bone of contention remains not only with the opposition parties which have said they will oppose it once it is put to vote, but many northeastern states fear that the Bangladeshi immigrants will be settled in their areas, which they think is a threat to their ethnic identity.

In the run up to the 2019 general elections, almost the entire northeast, mostly ruled by the BJP or the NDA, had registered their protest.

But as a revamped bill is all set to be re-introduced by the Modi government, there are provisions that are said to be included to "protect" the indigenous people of the northeast.

Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh had said during a media interaction in October that "we trust and have confidence that central leaders will be there to protect the indigenous people of the northeastern region."

NESO warns of agitation over Citizenship amendment bill

Shillong, Nov 28 (IANS) The powerful North East Students Organisation (NESO) on Thursday warned of an agitation across the northeastern states if the central government goes ahead with amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 in the ongoing winter session of Parliament.

The BJP-led NDA government had introduced the bill in its previous tenure but could not push it through due to vehement protests by opposition parties and it lapsed following the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.

The bill seeks to remove hurdles in the way of eligible migrants from six minority groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan from getting Indian citizenship.

"The people of our region are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Bill tooth and nail. The BJP government must understand the sentiments of the indigenous people in the northeastern region," NESO Chairman Samuel Jyrwa told IANS.

He added: "The Bill is again an attempt to impose the burden of the post-1971 Hindu Bangladeshis in the entire North East region which is not justified to say the least and North East is not a dumping ground for illegal Bangladeshis and to us... a foreigner is a foreigner irrespective of his religion."

Jyrwa, who is camping in New Delhi, met leaders of the Congress, Janata Dal-United, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and sought their support to oppose the amendment in parliament.

"We are exploring all options to prevent this amendment bill. We are talking to all stakeholders and we hope the central government understands our serious concerns about this bill," Jyrwa said.

Warning the central government not to go ahead with the bill, the NESO supremo said, "such an undesirable step by parliament will once again agitate the entire North East region."

Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had told IANS that neither his government nor his party, the National People's Party (NPP), will support the Citizenship Amendment Bill if the content of the proposed amendment goes against the interest of the people of the state and the northeast region.

"Our stand is very clear on the issue. If there is anything that is against the people of the state and the region as a whole, we will always stand against it. The interest of our people is our priority," Sangma had said.

The BJP-led government in Arunachal Pradesh too has been opposing the proposed amendment.